Will those who commit atrocities in Syria finally face justice? – World Problems

For years, UN human rights organizations have been documenting, monitoring and publishing reports on abuses, and bringing Syria’s poor human rights record to the world.

The fall of Bashar al Assad in December 2024 was widely welcomed by the Syrian people with joy, but the images of hundreds of people flocking to the infamous Sednaya prison, looking for their friends or relatives, and testimonies from former prisoners, recounting sadness and torture. they endured, it was a vivid reminder of the atrocities committed under the previous regime.

Since 2016, the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), has been accumulating a large collection of evidence, aimed at ensuring that those involved are finally held accountable.

In the eight years since, they have been repeatedly denied entry into Syria, and have had to work outside the country.

However, everything changed after the rapid fall of the empire. A few days later the head of the IIM, Robert Petit, was able to travel to Syria where he met with members of the de facto authorities. In this epic journey, he made a point to emphasize the importance of preserving evidence before it is lost forever.

UN news talked to Mr. Petit in his offices in Geneva and began by asking him to describe the reaction of the Syrians he met during his visit.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Robert Petit: It was a sobering and emotional time. I experienced a mixture of hope and joy, as well as fear and anxiety, and great sadness from the families of the prisoners who had been killed.

But there was certainly a sense of change across the board. It is my hope that the aspirations of the Syrian people will be fully realized with the help of the international community.

UN News: What was the purpose of your visit, and was it successful?

Robert Petit: Like the rest of the country, we are shocked at the speed with which the regime collapsed, although in retrospect we should have realized that the foundations had been completely eroded for years.

We had to quickly start thinking about how to deal with this new situation: for the first time in eight years, we have a chance to really fulfill our mission.

The main purpose of this trip was to start the diplomatic dialogue and explain to the new authorities what our role is and what we would like to do and get permission to do that. We found them welcoming.

We have formally requested permission to send teams to work and carry out our mission in Syria. That was back on December 21. We are still waiting for a response. I have no reason to believe that we will not get approval. I think it is a matter of procedures rather than determination, and we hope that within days we will receive that approval and we will file as soon as possible.

UN News: How difficult was it to gather evidence over the years that you were denied entry to the country?

Robert Petit: Syrian communities and Syrians as a whole, since March 2011, have been the best authors of their own abuses. They collect a lot of evidence of a crime, often at great risk to the cost of their lives.

Every year since we were created, we have tried to reach Syria. We were not able to get permission, but we developed close relationships with some of these civil society actors, media stakeholders and people who collected concrete evidence, as did other institutions.

We have accumulated over 284 terabytes of data over the years to build cases and support 16 different jurisdictions in prosecuting, investigating and prosecuting their cases.

We may now have access to a wealth of new criminal evidence, and we hope to be able to exploit that opportunity soon.

UN News: However, during the Assad years, you were not sure that anyone would be convicted.

Robert Petit: Our mission has been very clear from the beginning: to prepare cases to support current and future administrations. And that’s what we were doing. There was always hope that there would be some kind of court, or full justice for the crimes in Syria. In anticipation of that, we have been building cases and hope to build a wealth of understanding of the situation and evidence to support these cases.

At the same time, we have been supporting 16 authorities around the world that are prosecuting these cases, and I am very happy to say that we have been able to support about 250 of those investigations and prosecutions and we will continue to do so.

UN News: During your trip you said there is a small window of opportunity to protect the sites and the things they hold. Why?

Robert Petit: The Syrian regime has been working for years, so there will be a lot of evidence, but things are lost, destroyed and disappear. So, there is a problem of time.

UN News: Are the de facto authorities in Syria helping you find evidence?

Robert Petit: We received a message from the management that they are aware of the importance of keeping all this evidence. The truth is that they have been in control for six weeks, so it is clear that there are many competing priorities.

I think the situation in Damascus is good because many sites, the main ones at least, are protected. Outside of Damascus, I think the situation is very fluid and maybe even worse.

UN news: When Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited Syria in January he called for a fair, impartial justice after the end of the Assad regime. But he also said the level of violent crime “beggars belief”. Do you yourself think that justice rather than revenge, in a place where people have been so badly wronged, is possible or possible?

Robert Petit: That is for the Syrians to answer for themselves and in the hope that they will be listened to and supported by what they will describe as justice for them and what they have suffered.

If people are given the hope that there will be a system that will deal impartially and transparently with those who are most affected by this brutality, that will give them hope and patience.

I think it’s possible. I have worked enough in these situations to know that various things can be done to deal with these very complicated situations, but it must be led by Syria, and they must have the support of the international community.

UN News: Do you think that criminal trials will take place in Syria at the national level or at the international level, for example at the International Criminal Court?

Robert Petit: Again, it will depend on what the Syrians want. He speaks of thousands of criminals, and state resources dedicated to committing atrocities. It is an incredible challenge to define what accountability means.

In my opinion, those who are most responsible, the designers of the program, should be held criminally responsible. For everyone, the ways in which a post-conflict society resolves a crisis varies.

Rwanda, for example, tried to use traditional methods of conflict resolution to try 1.2 million perpetrators over a decade. Others, like Cambodia, simply try to hide the past, and pretend it never happened.

The best solution is one that the Syrians will decide for themselves.